Melilotus and Indigo: two short cases

by Deborah Collins

Case one

A woman in her mid-thirties came
for chronic migraines, which were becoming increasingly worse. There was hardly
a week without a severe migraine; she tried to struggle on at her job as a
teacher despite the pain, which made her vomit. When she arrived for
the consultation, she was again in the middle of a migraine attack; I offered her
to lay on a mattress, instead of harassing her with questions. She seemed to go
into a trance state, whispering in a tiny voice: “They are coming.” When I asked her, who was coming, she
answered: “The men in black boots.” When she was finally well enough to speak,
she said that this was an image that haunted her from time to time; having to
hide away in the dark, while “dangerous people” searched for her. Her red face
during the migraine, her tiny voice (even when well), her family background
during the war years in Holland, and her deplorable past history with a
sadistic brother made me think of Melilotus, which has the rubric: “fears to
raise the voice”. Her situation resembled that of someone who has to hide,
tense and silent, in order not to be taken away, like the Jews during the
Holocaust. She was given repeated doses of Melilotus and reported that not only
her migraines had disappeared but her ability to “speak up for herself” had improved.
A craving for sweets, which she had not previously mentioned, also disappeared.

Case twoA teenage boy came due to chronic
fatigue and an inability to concentrate, which he had had for most of his life
but which had become much more severe after a bout of mononucleosis. Despite
being bright and willing to learn, he could hardly get through his schoolwork
and was usually in bed straight after dinner. He was pale, thin, slouched over,
and exhausted. He came from a Jewish background and seemed to carry the weight
of the Jews’ history on his shoulders. The typical post- mononucleosis remedies,
such as Carcinocinum, Gelsemium, and Baptisia did nothing for him. Taking his
aversion to peas into consideration, I looked for a remedy in the Leguminosae
family. It was not until he had an acute ailment, however, that the right
remedy became evident. He developed a left-sided facial neuralgia, which
responded quickly to Indigo, one of the few Leguminosae with that complaint.
After the remedy, his energy also increased, as well as his ability to
concentrate. “The fog has lifted!” he said. He is now one of the last in the
family to go to bed.